I see, it's essentially stop frame animation, slapping a new frame over the old one rapidly for the rightmost elements, and more slowly as you go left. Didn't realise you could specify times like that though, very neat indeed

Forward thinking : still the rarest skill in the world

In the long term, doesn't this hurt Google most of all though? If they won't provide the referral data, webmasters (of all sizes) will find it harder and harder to provide quality sites to Google... which impacts on their (already shaky) results quality. People started using Google because they had noticably better results than anyone else. If they eventually become noticably worse, users will just go elsewhere. There's a certain amount of user inertia to overcome, but ask Y! or AV what happens to an SE when it's no longer the shiniest tool in the box...

Doesn't worry me. If it becomes too widespread, some bright spark will create a nice little lightweight app that users can grab to manufacture their own cookies, and use against the offending retailers. See how long the "new cookie" thing lasts when *every* cookie is new...

"Goddam it, that's not WRASSLIN'!"

</SouthPark>

It could still happen Brian. What if that ad budget that has been shifted turns out to make a better return elsewhere? A 15% slide in avg CPC for a few quarters in a row, and G are toast. Their share price has always reflected the monster sums they are expected to make *one day*. If it turns out they have already peaked it won't be pretty

As far as I know, WITS still runs. It's Keith Hazeldens gig, I think

Most of the really bad numbers came from Motorola. The "core" Google numbers weren't bad at all, below expectation, but only just. The only potentially worrying one for G is the average CPC, down about 15%, as ad budget shifts to other platforms, reducing upward pressure on prices. Even that is likely to be a relatively short termn effect

>> an admission that neg SEO is real

Since when did it need an admission?

I suspect this is really aimed at agencies, or really large clients. It's a way of making them all just a little bit more dependent on G

>> Unless they're constantly being replenished, they don't seem to be dropping off to me!

It's still such a rapidly expanding market, there is room for everyone, almost without regard to their competence. I spoke to Nick Wilsdon at Brighton, and one thing he said struck me. He said he keeps seeing people he has passed over for junior roles due to lack of experience keep popping up at other agencies with "Senior Whatever" type job titles. In the land of the blind, the one-eyed rule, for now

Well, that's comforting, at least. The dev seems to be a fairly responsive type, actually engages with customers etc

I know some people have had success with things like eBay and Chitika ad modules as a replacement for AdSense. Chitika will even do contextual ads for you, I think, although you have to be careful not to place those with AdSense of course

Anyone used it / programs using it? In theory, it looks like its a reasonable basic aff system, but real world experience is always better than reading the authors own blurb...

>>  Their only weapon to defend against their inability to create a fair search engine.

The sad part is that they are totally capable of creating a fair SE. But they'd have to give up some control to do it, and that's what they can't face, it seems. They are trying to build a walled garden so big, you don't even know you're in it, because you can't see the walls